You can’t handle strong, smart, beautiful black woman

Kara McCullough is a 25-year-old scientist from the District of Columbia who works for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. She’s also black, and she’s just won the title of Miss USA. People are cheering this victory for a smart, beautiful young woman on colour, right?

Whoa, not so fast there. Miss McCullough made a mistake of straying off the left-wing plantation to express opinions other than those that are expected of a “real black person”, i.e. standard left-wing platitudes.

Kara McCullough caused a firestorm on social media after she gave conservative answers to questions — saying she wasn’t a feminist and that she thought people need to have a job to have health care.

“I’m definitely going to say it’s a privilege,” McCullough said, when asked if access to medical care was a right, as liberals such as Sen. Bernie Sanders say, or a privilege, as many conservatives say.

She then added: “As a government employee, I’m granted health care and I see firsthand that for one to have health care, you need to have jobs.”

Later in the competition, McCullough and two other challengers were asked to explain what they consider feminism to be and whether they consider themselves feminists.

Miss District of Columbia replied that she likes to “transpose” the word feminism to “equalism.”

“I don’t want to call myself a feminist,” McCullough said. “Women, we are just as equal as men, especially in the workplace.”

McCullough, who graduated with a chemistry degree from South Carolina State University, said after the contest: “I believe we’ve come a long way and there is more work to be done. I think domestically we are making progress and I do believe that we will become equal one day.”

I honestly don’t know why we need to ask beauty contest finalists their opinions about political, economic and social issues. If you are concerned that Miss USA or any other pageant crowns women should be not just beautiful but otherwise good role models, being smart and engaged, check out their CV; being a scientists is pretty OK in my books. But if you are going to ask questions of a group of 50 or so young women, expect some diversity of views, please.

Anyway, this is all just an excuse to post a few more pictures of Kara. Congratulations, Miss McCullough! Nuclear science is lucky to have you.